Themes for a March: Solar City, Natural Haven

When the Workers Arts Coalition, a group of union members and artists, gathered to plan their float for the People’s Climate March this Sunday, they had no shortage of design ideas: A sculpture of a human body decorated with different ecosystems? A performance piece with union guys singing in light-up vests? There was a robot, of course, said Jaime Lopez, an electrician and a founder of the group. “A ‘Climatron,’ ” Mr. Lopez said, “built out with all kinds of awesome weapons, fighting climate change.”

In the end, they settled on a simpler but still grand vision. “We’re going to make our own little city,” Mr. Lopez, 28, said, “using different elements of green power.”

Made of sheet metal — courtesy of Local 28, a sheet metal workers’ union, and others — their float has a mini-Empire State Building, a mini-Chrysler Building and a mini-Freedom Tower. A model of the Brooklyn Bridge has a sign with W.P.A.-era lettering, “We Build the Future,” on a green sunburst background.

The message, said Bobby Andrew, a member of Local 28, is one of confidence. Organized labor is already “using green technology,” said Mr. Andrew, 54. The float will be pulled by a biodiesel truck, with its lights powered by workers on bicycles.

For those planning to participate in the march on Sunday, which its promoters are calling the world’s largest action against climate change, much of the building and fine-tuning has come in just these last few weeks.

Making the floats narratively accessible and visually appealing — not to mention carbon-neutral — has been a challenge. “This is the hardest issue I’ve ever worked on,” said Raquel de Anda, an organizer and a gallery curator, whose task was to recruit diverse artists for the march.

She approached Raúl Ayala, a Brooklyn muralist and member of Ropavejeros, a collective of Latin American immigrant artists, to create a piece about immigration and climate change.

Mr. Ayala, 34, and the six other members of his group, who hail from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Mexico, and who met working on construction sites around the city, came up with an allegorical float. The centerpiece is a tree, made of papier-mâché and discarded construction materials. Recycling, Mr. Ayala said, is part of his group’s ethos. (Ropavejeros translates to “rag-and-bone men,” merchants who sell scavenged goods.) The tree’s trunk is pierced with black axes.

“The tree represents nature; the axes represent the corporations that are trying to destroy nature,” said Mr. Ayala, who grew up the son of Ecuadorean farmers. “The idea was to use symbols to represent our shared struggles.”

Ms. de Anda introduced him to Heather Henson, a daughter of Jim Henson, who helped add an interactive element to the bicycle-powered float.

Atop the tree sits a nest; Ms. Henson designed bird kites that will fly around it. Mr. Ayala and his group made smaller mechanical birds, called ornithopters, to take wing from the nest. Powered by springing rubber bands, the ornithopters contain their builders’ stories and poems about immigration.

“We want to portray ourselves as birds, because we also fly, we also migrate, we also look for shelter in other lands,” Mr. Ayala said.

The uprooted tree, and its circling birds seeking haven, tackle the issues in an elegant way. (After the march, elements will be exhibited at Windows on Amsterdam, a community gallery at City College.) “Climate change is terrifying,” Ms. de Anda said, but with this float, “there’s still some fun and poetics to it.”

It resonated with the Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado, who plans to march with Ropavejeros. “If I was in Paris, I would be marching; if I was in Rio, I would be marching,” Mr. Salgado said through a spokesman. “With no exception, we must come together, as this has to rise to the top of our leaders’ agenda.”

Mr. Ayala hopes it also entrances kids. “We wanted to make it playful,” he said, “but at the end we want to have a clear message: Protect our home. Our planet is our nest.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page C2 of the New York edition with the headline: Themes for a March: Solar City, Natural Haven. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe